Over the last few years, terms like building management system (BMS), controls, sensors, IoT, predictive maintenance, and even artificial intelligence have been discussed in regard to the commercial building market. Now there is a new term making its way into the arena: digital twin. Much like the genetic copy of a human’s identical twin, a digital twin is an exact copy of an object or a building without the ethical snafus of cloning. In the white paper “Applying Digital Twins to the Built Environment” from Johnson Controls, a digital twin is defined as a connected, virtual replica of a physical product, asset, or system. In essence, it turns the physical world into a computable object.
“Digital twinning is the creation of a digital representation of the physical world, using models and data from sensors,” said Trent Swanson, vice president of architecture and platform for Johnson Controls. “Digital twins can improve the speed and accuracy in the troubleshooting of HVAC equipment. It can also be used to enable predictive maintenance, performance optimizations, and run simulations.”